Friday, March 8, 2013

As
I watch the snow failing outside my window, I am amazed at how my garden has
been transformed. Just yesterday, I was watching the bulbs poking up their
green curiosities, my snowdrops were beginning to bloom and the hellebores were
starting to unfurl their buds. I was thinking how I really needed to get my act
together and winter sow more of my seeds into their milk jugs which have been
sitting in three big black plastic garbage bags on my front porch (a very white
trash look FYI) for three weeks now awaiting a cleaning. I was starting to
worry about all the winter weeds I needed to start digging up and pulling out, and
about all the old foliage that needed to be pruned off, the deadheading I never
finished in the fall, the fertilizer I was going to have to put down, the
broken twigs I need to clean out of all the beds, and everything else the
garden was crying up for. My garden to do list was building as was my anxiety.

But
now, as my garden is transformed by silent white velvet, I am calmed.

I
believe all gardening is therapeutic and all gardens have the ability to sooth.
I also believe that your ability to become more tranquil in the garden can be
achieved equally through a day of weeding as it can be by raking pebbles and
contemplating your own toes, and I think it has a lot more to do with ones
personality, then ones surrounding. However, if like me, you are a somewhat hyperconscious
critter, sometimes you need a little help learning to slow down.

This
is where the mediation or serenity garden becomes a good idea. No matter how
large your land, or how big an outdoor space you have, you can always find a
way to create a moment within it where you can escape the stresses of everyday
life, and for some of us the stresses of the rest of the garden!

The goal is to create a space
that is relaxing, beautiful and serene. Of course, for every person, these criteria
are defined differently, so it’s important you be honest with yourself when you
are creating your space. For me, lush greenery is relaxing, but you might want
the sound of running water. Some of us will want to sit, others might want a
labyrinth to walk. Wind chimes might irritate you but could sooth and calm your
best friend. It’s all very personal.

There are some qualities
that everyone will enjoy, the first being a sense of privacy. Whether you’re
going to go to your garden to do downward dog or to watch the moonrise, your
space should be your own, whether hedged in or tucked away behind another area
the same sense of security you got from creating a fort in the dunes as a child
should be the goal. I personally would use plants, but this can also be done
with fencing or an arbor or a gazebo.

Next, you have to make sure your garden is comfortable when
you want to use it. If you are going to spend a lot of time there on winter mornings
you need it to be sheltered from the wind but maybe exposed to the sun. If it’s
going to be the place you go on summer afternoons, you might want to have a
shady corner be your space. I have a client who, after a long discussion, came
to the realization that he likes to watch shooting stars. For him, we’re
planning on cutting out a space in his woods to create a sunken paved area.
Exposed to the sun during the day, the stones will heat up and radiate warmth
into his back and shoulders as he quietly lies watching the show that is the
night sky.

I am terrible at mediating. I can’t just sit and contemplate,
I would need something to do, so for me a labyrinth I could walk would be very
helpful. A labyrinth is not a maze, a maze has many entrances and dead ends and
it’s real purpose is to confound and confuse. A labyrinth is uni-cursal,
meaning it has only one path, and it’s purpose is to take the person on the
path to it’s center. The journey of this path, from the outside to the inside,
is a walk where you can quiet your mind and find the center, not just of the labyrinth,
but of yourself. A labyrinth is not normally walled, but is either mown or
paved or created in such a way as to allow you smooth and unfettered passage.
Remember this when you are creating it.

I would love to be able to appreciate a Japanese Zen type
garden with pebbles I could rake, but I know that it would be, for me, very
stressful. What with trying to keep the chickens and dogs out, and worrying
about whether it was clean enough, or which way the stones should go, this type
of garden would just key me up. Perhaps you are different. If so then it’s
important to create this garden with a strongly defined edge to keep the sand
and pebbles from escaping as they are raked.

I always thought a moon garden would be wonderfully calming.
Planted with nothing but white flowers to reflect the moonlight and night
scented plants to perfume the air, and a smoochy, cushioned, cuddling area, I can’t
think of anything more extraordinarily peaceful. I also believe it would be
wonderful to have a place where I could sit outside in a summer rain storm and
watch the water fall without getting wet. That kind of serene spot is going to
take me a little more time and finagling to get going. It’s far easier to get
the gentle sounds of into my serenity area with an outdoor electric outlet and
a recycling fountain. The best thing about running water is that it can cancel
out all other noises, especially those in your head, if you can just focus on
the water and how it sounds as it falls.

One of my favorite clients has created an incredible
perennial garden that is, in many ways, a serenity garden. Filled with paths
that weave through trees and planting beds and then out into the lawn and then
back into the flowers, there are various fountains, benches and sculptures for you
to discover. These are places you can pause and contemplate and admire before
you travel on through the garden. It is an incredibly serene place for me to
visit, although it’s owner says he has a hard time not noticing the bits that
need weeding and the plants that are crying out for dividing when he’s trying
to be contemplative.

Another client has a garden where he cuts off all the flowers
from every plant so his entire experience is a surrounding sea of subtle
texture and color changes, all in the key of green. A third has a side area in
front of his house which is two large square boxes of lavender that is complete
hedged in. For him, his quietude is driven entirely by scent. I had a client
who had the most beautiful moss garden I’ve ever seen, but they sold their
house to someone who found the garden oppressive and transformed it into a
square of full-sun flowers. To each his own.

I think the important thing to remember is to be true and
honest with yourself about what you really like and what you really need. An
approach to life that will work not only for creating a mediation garden, but
also in almost every other aspect.

Paige Patterson is most serene when she has a trunk full of
flowering plants that she got for a great price.